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From Seven Days: “'We’re taking this moment to set up the legal infrastructure we’ve wanted for a decade,' Martin Diaz said. 'Now it’s a priority, but we were underprepared to meet this moment.'" Photo by Daria Bishop.
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From VT Digger: "'The proposed surveillance is likely to target people already impacted by that enforcement the most, said Kate Paarlberg-Kvam, of the Vermont Asylum Assistance Project, a legal advocacy network for immigrants. 'Make no mistake, that the primary targets for this enforcement would be our Black and brown neighbors, who are advocates for their own dignity.'"
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From WPTZ, regarding threatened refugee status revocations: "Jill Martin Diaz, an immigration attorney with the Vermont Asylum Assistance Project, said their team is ready to challenge potential revocations. 'If we were to receive a request for removal defense from someone impacted by this policy, we would certainly be challenging [the policy]."
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From VT Digger: "Advocates from the Vermont Asylum Assistance Project, which offers legal services to detainees, visited the facility Wednesday to meet with them but did not find the people taken from Jeffersonville there, according to Executive Director Jill Martin Diaz. That suggests the detainees were likely held temporarily to be transferred out of state, they said."
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From Seven Days, regarding a second VILDF grant to VAAP: "Four new grants were announced this week, including a second grant of $100,000 to the asylum assistance project. 'This will allow us to sustain the hiring we’ve done,' said executive director Jill Martin Diaz. 'As the Trump administration throws new problems at us, we need the technical expertise and resources to come up with new solutions.'"
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Speaking to WVMT with Representative Leonora Dodge (D-Chittenden), Jill shared: "'Asylum seekers help contribute to the economy and economic development. They're the fasted growing working age demographic in rural places like Vermont; far more likely to start a business; far more likely to fill jobs in sectors where there's labor shortages; and far more likely to have children. They're people who are contributing to the tax base at the federal and state levels. The more young, working families we have in a place like Vermont, with its demographic cliff, the better our housing costs and our healthcare costs are going to become."
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From Center Square, regarding Vermont's legislative efforts toward New Federalism: "Vermont appears willing to join North Dakota as it seeks to engage the community with solutions through the Office of New Americans. '[Vermont] will join roughly half the states in leveraging existing research, growing partnerships, and legislative momentum to secure Vermont’s long-term economic growth through coordinated workforce integration,' [Jill Martin] Diaz said."
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From the entire VAAP staff and board, thank you. Thank you first and foremost to our client communities for sharing your stories on the streets and in the courts and for leading this fight for our collective rights and our collective futures. Thank you to our partners, community leaders, funders, volunteers, pro bono counsel, and supporters for showing up—steadily, strategically, and with care. And thank you to our readers for sticking with this long, dense newsletter and for helping spread the word. We’re intentionally sharing one comprehensive update across VAAP’s many audiences so we can head off frequently asked questions, keep information consistent, and conserve staff capacity for what we do best: winning victories for individuals and families and decisive checks on ICE overreach. Thank you!
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